


Love you, more

by Rebekah_Zellers



Category: NCIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 09:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16060067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebekah_Zellers/pseuds/Rebekah_Zellers
Summary: Palmer learns who is real friends are when tragedy strikes. Featuring the team and the Tony & Palmer friendship.





	Love you, more

“Hey Jimmy!” Bishop smiled at the autopsy gremlin as she walked to her desk. “What brings you up here?”

 

“Doctor Mallard wanted some alone time,” Palmer shrugged. “He appears to be entertaining a woman.” Palmer paused then smiled. “Not in the carnal sense, I mean he’s showing her around autopsy, made her a cup of tea and brought some very expensive pastries from that bakery by his home.”

 

“He’s a hopeless romantic,” Gibbs snorted on his way to his desk. “Grab a seat,” Gibbs pointed at the empty desk. “McGee, give Palmer something to look up, he’s pretty good at researching.”

 

“Thank you, Agent Gibbs.” Palmer nodded as he smiled with pride. Walking to the chair, he turned on the computer as he waited for Tim to bring him what he wanted him to do. It wasn’t long before McGee was handing him a page filled with license plates to run along with criminal records of a couple lead suspects.

 

“Guys,” Palmer looked up. “Where does this print at? Never mind, I should have looked before I spoke.”

 

Gibbs smirked; he really did like Palmer. The man was becoming more and more like family by the day. Each member of the team had fallen in love with baby Victoria and loved how much it meant to Grand-Ducky to have her as part of his life. 

 

“Agent Gibbs,” Palmer called softly. “I will be right back; I need to go get my insulin from downstairs. I’m coming right back though; I want to finish this job.” 

 

“You need to eat?” Gibbs looked the man over. “Don’t put your health on the back burner, get yourself something to eat if you need it.”

 

Palmer was three steps past Gibbs desk when his phone rang. “Hello?” Palmer stopped in front of Tony’s desk to listen. “Yes, this is her son. What do you mean?” Palmer put a hand down to steady himself. “I don’t understand what you are saying.” Gibbs quickly made his way to Palmer’s side as he heard the young man’s voice break. Placing an arm around his waist, Gibbs held the younger man steady while Tim put a chair behind him. With Tony standing in front of him, Palmer’s eyes filled with tears as he looked up. “Did she die instantly?” Another pause left the whole team standing with tears in their eyes. 

 

“Thank you, I will make arrangements for her body to be brought to Virginia for burial.” Palmer was barely holding it together. 

 

“Your mom?” Tony whispered as he took the cell phone from Jimmy’s hand.

 

“Yeah,” pushing his glasses up on his nose, he looked around at the concerned eyes of the team including Ducky. “She was killed in a drive by shooting on her way into the grocery store. Said she died instantly.”

 

“Sit,” Gibbs lowered Palmer onto the chair. “Breathe, Palmer.”

 

“Jimmy?” Ducky’s eyes were glassy with tears. “Do you want me to call Breena? Maybe drive you home?”

 

“No,” Palmer shook his head. “I’m going to go down and grab my insulin then I have some work to do for Agent Gibbs; he’s counting on me.” Pushing past the crowd, Palmer made it as far as the elevator doors before he felt strong arms wrap around him and another hand on his back.

 

Looking up, the young man was left breathless and speechless to see that it was Gibbs holding him tight with Tony and Ducky’s hands on his back. “Palmer..” Gibbs searched for the right words to say. “You’re a son that lost his mother.”

 

“Thank you, Agent Gibbs.” Palmer stood up and pushed Gibbs away slightly. “I can still work; I will be right back.” Gibbs stepped out of the way; he recognized this stage of grief processing and it was going to a rough journey for their young friend.

 

“I’ll go,” Tony stated softly as he went to the stairs so that he could meet Palmer in the basement. “He’s going to crash. Could you go get him some food, Gibbs? Ducky, give me a couple minutes with him stand close I will yell when he starts to go down.”

 

“He’s seen this before?” McGee questioned.

 

“Tony and Jimmy are very good friends,” Ducky explained. “When Jimmy and Breena were so devastated about the biological mother keeping the baby, Jimmy grieved hard. It was Anthony’s gut and quick thinking that saved him. His emotional response to significant stress is that his blood sugar spikes dangerously and requires some quick action.”

 

Tony found Jimmy pacing around autopsy, he couldn’t remember where he had put his insulin. “Jimmy?” Tony placed a supportive hand on Palmer’s back. “You doing okay? Your hands are trembling and there is some sweat on your upper lip; I think we need to get Ducky in here.”

 

“My mom is dead, Tony.” Palmer sighed. “I didn’t get to say good-bye. I don’t even remember if I told her that I loved her when I talked to her last. What if she didn’t know?”

 

“I have heard you talk to her many times,” there was a sad smile that crossed Tony’s lips. “She knew; you told her three or four times a phone call. If I know anything in this world, I know that your mother knew she was loved by you.”

 

“My daughter,” Palmer sobbed. “She has my mom’s nose and eyes. Every single time that I look at Victoria, I see my mom. She’s never going to see her again; I am never going to see her again.” Tony knelt by his friend’s chair and gently wrapped him in a hug, holding his head to his shoulder until the grieving son had nothing left in him.

 

“Jimmy,” Ducky cooed softly. “I need to check your blood sugar; I will be quick.” The pop of the lancet made everyone in the room jump except the patient. He didn’t even flinch when Ducky administered some insulin. 

 

“Honey?” Breena’s voice called softly as she took Tony’s place. “Hey, can you look at me?” Seeing an exhausted little boy in her arms, Breena held her husband close. “I’m so sorry; I am going to miss her so much.”

 

The next few days passed in a blurr as Jimmy’s mother’s body was transported to Virginia. Jordan Hampton was kind enough to accompany it after she did the autopsy in Baltimore. “It was quick; she did not suffer, Jimmy.” Hugging her young friend, Jordan stepped away. The man standing before her so lost with a hint of fear in his eyes; she felt helpless.

 

The Palmer and Slater families filed into the church where Elizabeth Palmer’s funeral was being held. Jimmy startled slightly when Ducky sat beside his young friend and took his hand in his own. There was a little movement behind him but nothing that he even cared to turn around and look at.

 

The minister spoke relaying memories that Jimmy had told him about over the course of several days. There was a bit of music and prayer but nothing that felt exactly like the way a funeral for a mother that sacrificed everything should go.

 

Palmer stood and walked to the podium, his steps faltering slightly under the strain of the day. With his head bowed, he pulled a piece of paper for his suit jacket and smoothed it out on the podium.

 

“I never expected that this is where I would be today with my family. In a million years, I never would have even dreamt that my mother would have been shot while going to the grocery store. What does not surprise me about her death is that she put herself between a seven-year-old little boy and the shooter; she died protecting that little boy.”

 

Taking a deep breath, Jimmy looked up for the first time. Tears pouring down his face when he saw that every row of the church was filled. NCIS agents, hospital personnel, personal friends and extended family. Shaking his head, Palmer was unable to continue, his broken heart so full at that moment.

 

Tony stood along with Gibbs, both men walking to the podium to stand alongside their friend. Gibbs stood to Palmer’s right side, his arm firmly around his waist while Tony took his position at the microphone.

 

“My mother spent a good part of her life protecting a little boy; a little boy that felt wounded by the world. She would wipe tears for days on end, encouraging that little boy that someday, he would grow up and all the pain he had suffered during his childhood would make him a very strong man.

 

She saw a doctor in me before I even knew what I wanted to be. The funny thing is even though she saw that part of me, she spent hours encouraging me to be a writer or a dancer. For some reason, she felt that I could set the world on fire by tap dancing.

 

My mother was a hero, maybe not a hero like the men and women that I work with every day but still a hero. She beat the impossible odds of being left to raise a child on her own in a world that was not understand of single mothers. She put food on the table, clothes on my back and roof over my head. While those things were not always plentiful, the one thing that in our home was love. We did not have much but what we did have, she would have given to anyone that was in need. My mother saved me from a world that was unforgiving much like she saved the little boy in those last moments of her life.

 

I have cried a lot, I have growled and snarled at those people that mean the most to me as part of my grief. I have come to a deep realization that I have done the one thing that my mother always taught me never to do; take people for granted. I just always think that tomorrow they will be there for me to say those things that I should have said the day before but life doesn’t work that way.

 

When I got home from planning this funeral, I sat on the floor playing with my daughter much as my mother played with me all those years. I was lost in both my grief over the loss of my mother and my love for my child when the doorbell rang. Going to the door, I greeted the mailman and accepted the package he had for me. The return address was my mother’s and inside was a sign that said, I love you, more. Which is what she said to me at the end of every conversation. I guess, in my heart, that was the best good-bye she could have given me.”

 

Tony wiped the tears that had started flowing as he read his friends beautiful words. Stepping back, Tony made room for the grieving son to take his place once again being steady by Gibbs.

 

“I never knew my father,” Palmer began. “However, I had the best mother the world could offer. She gave me the foundation to go into this world and make something of myself. My accomplishments were her greatest joy; she rejoiced as I told her the stories of my family. My beautiful wife and daughter; the friends that I have made along the way. The fact that life has given me two strong father figures and a big brother. She told me not too long ago that she had complete peace because she knew that I would be okay someday without her.

 

I don’t know how I will ever be okay without you, mom but I do know I am a better person because of you. You’ve earned your rest and no matter what you say, I love you, more.”

 

Palmer turned to Gibbs surprised when the older man pulled him into a hug. “She’s proud of you, Palmer.” Nodding through the tears, Jimmy turned to Tony only to break into a sobbing little boy as his best friend held him close. “What you did, I can’t thank you enough.”

 

“I should be thanking her,” Tony nodded towards the casket. “You are one hell of a man, Jimmy; one hell of a son.”


End file.
